Inventing Local Democracy

Inventing Local Democracy

Author: Rebecca Abers

Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 9781555878931

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Abers (political science, Center for Public Policy Research, U. of Brasília, Brazil) provides a close study of innovative city government in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Led by the Workers' Party, the city implemented a participatory budget program in which residents meet in their neighborhoods to determine budget priorities. Taking place in a city long dominated by patronage politics and elite rule, the story is both a sociopolitical study of the impact that state- sponsored participatory forums can have on civil society and a contribution to the theory and practical possibilities of participatory democracy.--


Book Synopsis Inventing Local Democracy by : Rebecca Abers

Download or read book Inventing Local Democracy written by Rebecca Abers and published by Lynne Rienner Publishers. This book was released on 2000 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abers (political science, Center for Public Policy Research, U. of Brasília, Brazil) provides a close study of innovative city government in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Led by the Workers' Party, the city implemented a participatory budget program in which residents meet in their neighborhoods to determine budget priorities. Taking place in a city long dominated by patronage politics and elite rule, the story is both a sociopolitical study of the impact that state- sponsored participatory forums can have on civil society and a contribution to the theory and practical possibilities of participatory democracy.--


Local Democracy

Local Democracy

Author: Lawrence Pratchett

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Published: 2014-05-15

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780333962060

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Book Synopsis Local Democracy by : Lawrence Pratchett

Download or read book Local Democracy written by Lawrence Pratchett and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 2014-05-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:


Creating Local Democracy in Iran

Creating Local Democracy in Iran

Author: Kian Tajbakhsh

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2022-07-21

Total Pages: 331

ISBN-13: 1009160915

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An innovative study of the political decentralization of Iran and the failure of elected local government to democratize the authoritarian regime.


Book Synopsis Creating Local Democracy in Iran by : Kian Tajbakhsh

Download or read book Creating Local Democracy in Iran written by Kian Tajbakhsh and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-07-21 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An innovative study of the political decentralization of Iran and the failure of elected local government to democratize the authoritarian regime.


Creating Local Democracy in Iran

Creating Local Democracy in Iran

Author: Kian Tajbakhsh

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2022-07-21

Total Pages: 331

ISBN-13: 1009185039

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Empirically rich and theoretically informed, this book is an innovative analysis of political decentralization under the Islamic Republic of Iran. Drawing upon Kian Tajbakhsh's twenty years of experience working with and researching local government in Iran, it uses original data and insights to explain how local government operates in towns and cities as a form of electoral authoritarianism. With a combination of historical, political, and financial field research, it explores the multifaceted dimensions of local power and how various ideologically opposed actors shaped local government as an integral component of authoritarian state building. Ultimately, this book demonstrates how local government serves to undermine democratization and consolidate the Islamist regime. As Iran's cities and towns grow and develop, their significance will only increase, and this study is vital to understanding their politics, administration and influence.


Book Synopsis Creating Local Democracy in Iran by : Kian Tajbakhsh

Download or read book Creating Local Democracy in Iran written by Kian Tajbakhsh and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-07-21 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Empirically rich and theoretically informed, this book is an innovative analysis of political decentralization under the Islamic Republic of Iran. Drawing upon Kian Tajbakhsh's twenty years of experience working with and researching local government in Iran, it uses original data and insights to explain how local government operates in towns and cities as a form of electoral authoritarianism. With a combination of historical, political, and financial field research, it explores the multifaceted dimensions of local power and how various ideologically opposed actors shaped local government as an integral component of authoritarian state building. Ultimately, this book demonstrates how local government serves to undermine democratization and consolidate the Islamist regime. As Iran's cities and towns grow and develop, their significance will only increase, and this study is vital to understanding their politics, administration and influence.


Good Government in the Tropics

Good Government in the Tropics

Author: Judith Tendler

Publisher:

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13:

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In Good Government in the Tropics, Judith Tendler questions widely prevailing views about why governments so often perform poorly and about what causes them to improve. Drawing on a set of four cases involving public bureaucracies at work under the direction of an innovative state government in Brazil, the book offers findings of significance to the current debates about organization of the public-sector workplace, public service delivery, decentralization, and the interaction between government and civil society. The case chapters represent four different sectors, each traditionally spoken for by its distinct experts, literatures, and public agnecies -- rural preventive health, small enterprise development, agricultural extension for small farmers, and employment-creating public works construction and drought relief. With findings that cut across these sectoral boundaries, the book raises questions about the policy advice proferred by the international donor community. It shifts the terms of the prevailing debate away from mistrust of government toward an understanding of the circumstances under which public servants become truly committed to their work and public service improves dramatically. "The traditional focus on trying to eliminate 'rent-seeking' by reducing the state's role has made a contribution but lost much of its charisma. Theoreticians and practitioners alike are looking for new ideas and Tendler offers a quite intriguing set of them. The cases demonstrate surprising counter-intuitive results that will be of interest even to those with little substantive interest in the particular setting described. Theoretical novelty and elegant use of evidence combine to make this book a clear winner." -- Peter Evans, University of California at Berkeley


Book Synopsis Good Government in the Tropics by : Judith Tendler

Download or read book Good Government in the Tropics written by Judith Tendler and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Good Government in the Tropics, Judith Tendler questions widely prevailing views about why governments so often perform poorly and about what causes them to improve. Drawing on a set of four cases involving public bureaucracies at work under the direction of an innovative state government in Brazil, the book offers findings of significance to the current debates about organization of the public-sector workplace, public service delivery, decentralization, and the interaction between government and civil society. The case chapters represent four different sectors, each traditionally spoken for by its distinct experts, literatures, and public agnecies -- rural preventive health, small enterprise development, agricultural extension for small farmers, and employment-creating public works construction and drought relief. With findings that cut across these sectoral boundaries, the book raises questions about the policy advice proferred by the international donor community. It shifts the terms of the prevailing debate away from mistrust of government toward an understanding of the circumstances under which public servants become truly committed to their work and public service improves dramatically. "The traditional focus on trying to eliminate 'rent-seeking' by reducing the state's role has made a contribution but lost much of its charisma. Theoreticians and practitioners alike are looking for new ideas and Tendler offers a quite intriguing set of them. The cases demonstrate surprising counter-intuitive results that will be of interest even to those with little substantive interest in the particular setting described. Theoretical novelty and elegant use of evidence combine to make this book a clear winner." -- Peter Evans, University of California at Berkeley


The New Localism

The New Localism

Author: Bruce Katz

Publisher: Brookings Institution Press

Published: 2018-01-09

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 0815731655

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The New Localism provides a roadmap for change that starts in the communities where most people live and work. In their new book, The New Localism, urban experts Bruce Katz and Jeremy Nowak reveal where the real power to create change lies and how it can be used to address our most serious social, economic, and environmental challenges. Power is shifting in the world: downward from national governments and states to cities and metropolitan communities; horizontally from the public sector to networks of public, private and civic actors; and globally along circuits of capital, trade, and innovation. This new locus of power—this new localism—is emerging by necessity to solve the grand challenges characteristic of modern societies: economic competitiveness, social inclusion and opportunity; a renewed public life; the challenge of diversity; and the imperative of environmental sustainability. Where rising populism on the right and the left exploits the grievances of those left behind in the global economy, new localism has developed as a mechanism to address them head on. New localism is not a replacement for the vital roles federal governments play; it is the ideal complement to an effective federal government, and, currently, an urgently needed remedy for national dysfunction. In The New Localism, Katz and Nowak tell the stories of the cities that are on the vanguard of problem solving. Pittsburgh is catalyzing inclusive growth by inventing and deploying new industries and technologies. Indianapolis is governing its city and metropolis through a network of public, private and civic leaders. Copenhagen is using publicly owned assets like their waterfront to spur large scale redevelopment and finance infrastructure from land sales. Out of these stories emerge new norms of growth, governance, and finance and a path toward a more prosperous, sustainable, and inclusive society. Katz and Nowak imagine a world in which urban institutions finance the future through smart investments in innovation, infrastructure and children and urban intermediaries take solutions created in one city and adapt and tailor them to other cities with speed and precision. As Katz and Nowak show us in The New Localism, “Power now belongs to the problem solvers.”


Book Synopsis The New Localism by : Bruce Katz

Download or read book The New Localism written by Bruce Katz and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2018-01-09 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New Localism provides a roadmap for change that starts in the communities where most people live and work. In their new book, The New Localism, urban experts Bruce Katz and Jeremy Nowak reveal where the real power to create change lies and how it can be used to address our most serious social, economic, and environmental challenges. Power is shifting in the world: downward from national governments and states to cities and metropolitan communities; horizontally from the public sector to networks of public, private and civic actors; and globally along circuits of capital, trade, and innovation. This new locus of power—this new localism—is emerging by necessity to solve the grand challenges characteristic of modern societies: economic competitiveness, social inclusion and opportunity; a renewed public life; the challenge of diversity; and the imperative of environmental sustainability. Where rising populism on the right and the left exploits the grievances of those left behind in the global economy, new localism has developed as a mechanism to address them head on. New localism is not a replacement for the vital roles federal governments play; it is the ideal complement to an effective federal government, and, currently, an urgently needed remedy for national dysfunction. In The New Localism, Katz and Nowak tell the stories of the cities that are on the vanguard of problem solving. Pittsburgh is catalyzing inclusive growth by inventing and deploying new industries and technologies. Indianapolis is governing its city and metropolis through a network of public, private and civic leaders. Copenhagen is using publicly owned assets like their waterfront to spur large scale redevelopment and finance infrastructure from land sales. Out of these stories emerge new norms of growth, governance, and finance and a path toward a more prosperous, sustainable, and inclusive society. Katz and Nowak imagine a world in which urban institutions finance the future through smart investments in innovation, infrastructure and children and urban intermediaries take solutions created in one city and adapt and tailor them to other cities with speed and precision. As Katz and Nowak show us in The New Localism, “Power now belongs to the problem solvers.”


Beyond Adversary Democracy

Beyond Adversary Democracy

Author: Jane J. Mansbridge

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1983-06-15

Total Pages: 412

ISBN-13: 0226503550

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"Beyond Adversary Democracy should be read by everyone concerned with democratic theory and practice."—Carol Pateman, Politics "Sociologists recurrently complain about how seldom it is that we produce books that combine serious theorizing about important issues of public policy with original and sensitive field research. Several rounds of enthusiastic applause, then, are due Jane Mansbridge . . . for having produced a dense and well written book whose subject is nothing less ambitious than the theory of democracy and its problems of equality, solidarity, and consensus. Beyond Adversary Democracy, however, is not simply a work of political theory; Mansbridge explores her abstract subject matter by close studies (using ethnographic, documentary, and questionnaire methods) of two small actual democracies operating at their most elemental American levels (1) a New England town meeting ("Selby," Vermont) and (2) an urban crisis center ("Helpline"), whose 41 employees shared a New Left-Counterculture belief in participatory democracy and consensual decision-making. [Mansbridge] is a force to contend with. It is in our common interest that she be widely read."—Bennett M. Berger, Contemporary Sociology


Book Synopsis Beyond Adversary Democracy by : Jane J. Mansbridge

Download or read book Beyond Adversary Democracy written by Jane J. Mansbridge and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1983-06-15 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Beyond Adversary Democracy should be read by everyone concerned with democratic theory and practice."—Carol Pateman, Politics "Sociologists recurrently complain about how seldom it is that we produce books that combine serious theorizing about important issues of public policy with original and sensitive field research. Several rounds of enthusiastic applause, then, are due Jane Mansbridge . . . for having produced a dense and well written book whose subject is nothing less ambitious than the theory of democracy and its problems of equality, solidarity, and consensus. Beyond Adversary Democracy, however, is not simply a work of political theory; Mansbridge explores her abstract subject matter by close studies (using ethnographic, documentary, and questionnaire methods) of two small actual democracies operating at their most elemental American levels (1) a New England town meeting ("Selby," Vermont) and (2) an urban crisis center ("Helpline"), whose 41 employees shared a New Left-Counterculture belief in participatory democracy and consensual decision-making. [Mansbridge] is a force to contend with. It is in our common interest that she be widely read."—Bennett M. Berger, Contemporary Sociology


Democratization in Africa

Democratization in Africa

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1992-02-01

Total Pages: 94

ISBN-13: 0309047978

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The global movement toward democracy, spurred in part by the ending of the cold war, has created opportunities for democratization not only in Europe and the former Soviet Union, but also in Africa. This book is based on workshops held in Benin, Ethiopia, and Namibia to better understand the dynamics of contemporary democratic movements in Africa. Key issues in the democratization process range from its institutional and political requirements to specific problems such as ethnic conflict, corruption, and role of donors in promoting democracy. By focusing on the opinion and views of African intellectuals, academics, writers, and political activists and observers, the book provides a unique perspective regarding the dynamics and problems of democratization in Africa.


Book Synopsis Democratization in Africa by : National Research Council

Download or read book Democratization in Africa written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1992-02-01 with total page 94 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The global movement toward democracy, spurred in part by the ending of the cold war, has created opportunities for democratization not only in Europe and the former Soviet Union, but also in Africa. This book is based on workshops held in Benin, Ethiopia, and Namibia to better understand the dynamics of contemporary democratic movements in Africa. Key issues in the democratization process range from its institutional and political requirements to specific problems such as ethnic conflict, corruption, and role of donors in promoting democracy. By focusing on the opinion and views of African intellectuals, academics, writers, and political activists and observers, the book provides a unique perspective regarding the dynamics and problems of democratization in Africa.


The Decline and Rise of Democracy

The Decline and Rise of Democracy

Author: David Stasavage

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2021-08-24

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13: 0691228973

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"Historical accounts of democracy's rise tend to focus on ancient Greece and pre-Renaissance Europe. The Decline and Rise of Democracy draws from global evidence to show that the story is much richer--democratic practices were present in many places, at many other times, from the Americas before European conquest, to ancient Mesopotamia, to precolonial Africa. Delving into the prevalence of early democracy throughout the world, David Stasavage makes the case that understanding how and where these democracies flourished--and when and why they declined--can provide crucial information not just about the history of governance, but also about the ways modern democracies work and where they could manifest in the future."--


Book Synopsis The Decline and Rise of Democracy by : David Stasavage

Download or read book The Decline and Rise of Democracy written by David Stasavage and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-08-24 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Historical accounts of democracy's rise tend to focus on ancient Greece and pre-Renaissance Europe. The Decline and Rise of Democracy draws from global evidence to show that the story is much richer--democratic practices were present in many places, at many other times, from the Americas before European conquest, to ancient Mesopotamia, to precolonial Africa. Delving into the prevalence of early democracy throughout the world, David Stasavage makes the case that understanding how and where these democracies flourished--and when and why they declined--can provide crucial information not just about the history of governance, but also about the ways modern democracies work and where they could manifest in the future."--


Inventing Freedom

Inventing Freedom

Author: Daniel Hannan

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2013-11-19

Total Pages: 315

ISBN-13: 0062231758

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Why does the world speak English? Why does every country at least pretend to aspire to representative government, personal freedom, and an independent judiciary? In The New Road to Serfdom, British politician Daniel Hannan exhorted Americans not to abandon the principles that have made our country great. Inventing Freedom is a much more ambitious account of the historical origin and spread of those principles, and their role in creating a sphere of economic and political liberty that is as crucial as it is imperiled. According to Hannan, the ideas and institutions we consider essential to maintaining and preserving our freedoms—individual rights, private property, the rule of law, and the institutions of representative government—are not broadly "Western" in the usual sense of the term. Rather they are the legacy of a very specific tradition, one that was born in England and that we Americans, along with other former British colonies, inherited. The first English kingdoms, as they emerged from the Dark Ages, already had unique characteristics that would develop into what we now call constitutional government. By the tenth century, a thousand years before most modern countries, England was a nation-state whose people were already starting to define themselves with reference to inherited common-law rights. The story of liberty is the story of how that model triumphed. How, repressed after the Norman Conquest, it reasserted itself; how it developed during the civil wars of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries into the modern liberal-democratic tradition; how it was enshrined in a series of landmark victories—the Magna Carta, the English Civil War, the Glorious Revolution, the U.S. Constitution—and how it came to defeat every international rival. Yet there was nothing inevitable about it. Anglosphere values could easily have been snuffed out in the 1940s. And they would not be ascendant today if the Cold War had ended differently. Today we see those ideas abandoned and scorned in the places where they once went unchallenged. The current U.S. president, in particular, seems determined to deride and traduce the Anglosphere values that the Founders took for granted. Inventing Freedom explains why the extraordinary idea that the state was the servant, not the ruler, of the individual evolved uniquely in the English-speaking world. It is a chronicle of the success of Anglosphere exceptionalism. And it is offered at a time that may turn out to be the end of the age of political freedom.


Book Synopsis Inventing Freedom by : Daniel Hannan

Download or read book Inventing Freedom written by Daniel Hannan and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2013-11-19 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why does the world speak English? Why does every country at least pretend to aspire to representative government, personal freedom, and an independent judiciary? In The New Road to Serfdom, British politician Daniel Hannan exhorted Americans not to abandon the principles that have made our country great. Inventing Freedom is a much more ambitious account of the historical origin and spread of those principles, and their role in creating a sphere of economic and political liberty that is as crucial as it is imperiled. According to Hannan, the ideas and institutions we consider essential to maintaining and preserving our freedoms—individual rights, private property, the rule of law, and the institutions of representative government—are not broadly "Western" in the usual sense of the term. Rather they are the legacy of a very specific tradition, one that was born in England and that we Americans, along with other former British colonies, inherited. The first English kingdoms, as they emerged from the Dark Ages, already had unique characteristics that would develop into what we now call constitutional government. By the tenth century, a thousand years before most modern countries, England was a nation-state whose people were already starting to define themselves with reference to inherited common-law rights. The story of liberty is the story of how that model triumphed. How, repressed after the Norman Conquest, it reasserted itself; how it developed during the civil wars of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries into the modern liberal-democratic tradition; how it was enshrined in a series of landmark victories—the Magna Carta, the English Civil War, the Glorious Revolution, the U.S. Constitution—and how it came to defeat every international rival. Yet there was nothing inevitable about it. Anglosphere values could easily have been snuffed out in the 1940s. And they would not be ascendant today if the Cold War had ended differently. Today we see those ideas abandoned and scorned in the places where they once went unchallenged. The current U.S. president, in particular, seems determined to deride and traduce the Anglosphere values that the Founders took for granted. Inventing Freedom explains why the extraordinary idea that the state was the servant, not the ruler, of the individual evolved uniquely in the English-speaking world. It is a chronicle of the success of Anglosphere exceptionalism. And it is offered at a time that may turn out to be the end of the age of political freedom.